Coaching changes are common in Division I football, whether due to retirement, departure to other organizations or personal reasons. In light of a drastic change, other coaches get a chance to step up, which is what Marist football offensive line coach and run game coordinator TJ Weyl has the opportunity to as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
Two days after former offensive coordinator Bob Davies stepped down on Jan. 6, Marist head coach Mike Willis wasted no time promoting Weyl to the role. While this is the first opportunity in Weyl’s coaching career to be an offensive coordinator, it can potentially be the spark the team needs to get back on track after a disappointing one-win season in 2024.
While the offensive approach should be similar to last year’s, continuity often sparks improvement, and the change from Davies to Weyl won’t drastically change the approach from a coaching, play calling, or schematic perspective.
Weyl emphasized that this will still be the same run-pass option heavy, spread and efficiency-based offense from last year. Marist was second-worst in points per game in the PFL last season, and Weyl acknowledges the areas where improvement will be vital.
One of these areas of improvement is simply getting the fundamentals right on a consistent basis, “A coach will never be with you in between the white lines on game day,” said Weyl.
A defense can throw many different looks at an offense on any snap. Weyl’s priority is not just installing an answer to each appearance, but making sure the players understand why they want to change certain things about their offensive attack in response to different defenses.
“I want to build players who have the requisite, techniques and problem-solving ability to figure out whatever happens out there,” said Weyl.
There was no better example of the ability for this style of developing players to work than redshirt junior right guard Dominic Perricone, who was named First Team All-PFL this past season. As the offensive line coach for The Red Foxes last season, Weyl played a large role in Perricone’s dominant season.
“Dom [Perricone] worked really hard on his footwork. He continues to work really hard on his lateral agility. That’s what makes him such a great player. Not just his obvious natural strength,” said Weyl. “He’s one of the strongest guys on the team, he always has been. But he continues to search for ways to round out his game.”
His work ethic was what allowed Perricone to become the landmark player that he was, and Weyl wants other players to recognize that and follow in his footsteps. The new offensive coordinator wants to develop this whole roster to “do a lot of simple things well.”
This way of developing players and an emphasis on continuity was something that Weyl learned from during his time at Johns Hopkins University. From 1990 to 2018, John Hopkins was coached by the legendary Jim Margraff. After Margraff passed in 2019, Greg Chimera, one of his disciples, took over for him.
“One of the things I’m so excited about this upcoming year is that we’re going into year two. We’ve done it for a year. There’s a lot of good things we learned and there’s a lot of things I saw that we could do better,” said Weyl.
Weyl now can impact the team more directly because of the new role. In the past, Weyl has worked all over the offensive side of the ball, but he never worked with every part of the offense in cohesion.
This challenge excites him, and is aware of the pressure that comes with this new position, but feels privileged to have the opportunity.
“I get to bounce out of bed every morning knowing I get to work with this group, both the coaches and the players” said Weyl.
This improvement is essential, as Marist’s offense struggled severely throughout the season, scoring below 20 points in all but three games. Weyl sees one main area of improvement for the offense—Consistency.
“In every game you could point to a situation here or there where we let something in our control get away,” said Weyl.
Momentum is such a big aspect of the game of football, and a lack of consistency ultimately can lead to teams being on the losing end of a game-changing shift.
“Most football games come down to six or seven plays,” said Weyl. In his mind, to win these plays, his players have to improve in three areas: preciseness, thoroughness and mental toughness.
Weyl has faith in the talent of the roster. He pointed out the first half of their game against Georgetown as an example of what this team is capable of. In that half, the Red Foxes came out ferociously in their season opener and limited the Bulldogs to just one scoring drive, heading into halftime with a 10-7 lead. Consistency is paramount considering that the offensive attack is designed around constructing long drives through safer, unexplosive play designs.
Now that he has the role of offensive coordinator, Weyl now has to approach each week with far more schematic responsibility. His approach is unique because he doesn’t script his playcalls out before the game like many other modern offensive coaches, but he does look for specific information and will call certain plays to obtain that information.
Similarly to other coaches, Weyl intends to mismatch different personnel packages, utilize motions, and align in different formations to see different pre-snap looks and evaluate his offensive attack based on what the defense is showing him, as well as taking advantage of specific teams’ weaknesses.
A huge criticism of the Marist offense last year was that they didn’t establish a true identity. When asked what the offense’s identity will be this upcoming season, Weyl didn’t hesitate to stress the importance of physicality—repeating it several times.
Weyl clarified he wants that physicality to go beyond just the run game and the trenches.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re throwing the rock and we got guys blocking on the perimeter. Doesn’t matter if it’s a receiver going up to grab a jump ball. I want them to jump up and violently attack the football and haul it in for us,” said Weyl. “Whether it’s running the ball or throwing it, I do not care—physicality will be our calling card.”
An underrated part of Weyl’s promotion is his new role as a leader in the locker room. He specifically called the establishment of culture as the most important thing he does. Every meeting with players starts with a conversation that has no association with anything on the field, just authentic conversations from person to person, not player to coach.
During these conversations, Weyl tries to establish a strong culture that allows these players to be better men off the field, because he has always been taught that it translates to on-field success.
Weyl has grown to love this community of fans, and after a disappointing season he felt ashamed to have let down such a great fanbase. As a gesture of love for the Red Fox community, Weyl’s wife, a designer, created a red-and-white handkerchief and a detailed drawing of the student center—both of these two pieces of art hang in coach Weyl’s office as reminders of the community he is working for.
Despite being in just his second season with Marist, Weyl has grown to embrace this community. He made sure to emphasize that the team is currently very confident in the direction they’re heading and he looks forward to making this fanbase proud.
Edited by August Lieberman and Daniel Aulbach
Graphic by Eugene Barbieri; Photo from Marist Athletics
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